CSBR SE Colorado road trip: Rural students get inspired in Lamar

William Palmer (left), 17, a senior at Eads, models an “I am a space buff” sticker from CU Boulder while on a tour of Students from Eads High School and representatives from the Colorado Space Business Roundtable toured Dragon manufacturing in Lamar on Thursday. Palmer plans to enroll in the Navy upon graduation. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)

Half of the population of Eads High School heard the Colorado aerospace message firsthand Thursday morning.

The 23 students — Eads High School has 50 students total — were told to dream big because they can all do great things … and maybe even go to space.

“Does anyone in here ask ‘why?’ If you do, raise your hand,” Orion program rocket scientist Amber Gell said to the group of juniors and seniors. “If you do, you already have what it takes to be a scientist. Scientists ask ‘why’ but don’t stop until they get an answer.”

Gell is part of the Colorado Space Business Roundtable’s SE Colorado road trip taking place this week. The traveling road show stopped Thursday at the Cow Palace hotel in Lamar with the expectation they’d be presenting to community business leaders and educators. What they found among the Rotarians in attendance was a group of eager high school juniors and seniors, all from an entrepreneur class from Eads, with questions about schools, the space shuttle and exploration.

A sampling of the literature students could pick up to learn more about space-related degrees and programs in Colorado. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)

Eads, the Kiowa County seat about 35 miles north of Lamar, has a population of 609, according to the 2010 census.

For these young women and men, going into space for NASA may seem like a distant dream. But a big part of the CSBR roadtrip is STEM outreach, informing rural communities of the opportunities available for students and educational institutions alike in the form of scholarships, internships, field trips and networking.

And, said Jay Lindell, Colorado’s OEDIT aerospace champion, the potential of this generation — coupled with technology like 3D printing — is limitless.

“In Houston, they hit ‘enter’ and a tool prints out on the International Space Station, and someday, if our country chooses to go to Mars, that tool will print out there on Mars,” Lindell added. “And you will have built that spacecraft.”

A table full of young men from Eads High School eat lunch and talk space with Amber Gell, a Lockheed Martin rocket scientist who works on the Orion spacecraft. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)

Aerospace wasn’t anything to which Frederick Turner, a junior at Eads High School, had given much serious thought. But, he said, after watching videos from previous CSBR roadtrips, he was interested to learn more.

His curiosity was piqued listening to Gell explain how the Space Shuttle wasn’t designed for deep space exploration, and also learning more about the Orion project. He’s now more seriously considering an engineering path in college.

“It just seemed like something that’s worth doing and that you could make a career out of,” he said. “If anything, I could start out at CSU Pueblo and if they didn’t offer the courses to go on from there, I guess I’d have to transfer to CU Boulder.”

“I’m a junior, so I have a little bit of time,” he added. “I’m trying to get it narrowed down on what I want to do.”

Rick Robbins, manager of Colorado Mills, explains to Eads High School students and CSBR representatives about how the the company makes its sunflower oil. The process includes science and chemistry, along with engineering and agriculture. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)

The main takeaway for many of these kids is that they don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work in the space industry. That’s not to say these kids can’t be rocket scientists, because they can. But, many hands are needed to make space exploration a reality — Gell explained welders, mechanics, business people and more all play critical roles.

“There’s space in the space industry for everyone,” she said.

Sidenote: 31 percent of the Eads students in attendance were young women, a great average considering that females make up nearly half of the state’s workforce, but hold only about 25 percent of STEM jobs in Colorado, per data from the Colorado Education Initiative.

Students from Eads High School and representatives from the Colorado Space Business Roundtable toured Dragon manufacturing on Thursday, where Ranco trailers for construction are fabricated, welded and finalized. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)

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Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.